Sunday, September 27, 2015

I learned to sew when I was young. My mother is an amazing
seamstress and excels at complicated patterns and tailoring. She made all the
clothes for our family and I spent many afternoons on the floor of her closet watching
her sew.

The first item I sewed was a beanbag toy shaped like a
turtle. I moved on to sewing doll clothes and then my own. I continued making my
own clothes whenever I could steal time on mom’s machine or during the summer
when I visited the grandparents. Unfortunately by the time I inherited my
grandmother’s machine, I was well entrenched in a career that required long
hours and travel and left no time for creative pursuits.

Decades later, my mother-in-law showed me quilt after
beautiful quilt to entice me to learn her craft. There were traditional log
cabin quilts, hand appliqued marvels and quilts with dizzying piecing of
colorful half square triangles. Her passion and skill were so evident, it was
hard not to succumb. My love of sewing overwhelmed my lack of desire and I
plunged into quilting head first.

From this I learned: if you want to make someone a quilter,
show them your quilts. I also learned I love piecing! What I realized quickly
after, however, is that I don’t like repetition.

My mother-in-law gave me a traditional round and round kit
for my birthday that year and I barely completed half the blocks. I just couldn’t
bring myself to continue doing the same thing over and over again. As a result,
I erroneously equated tradition with boredom.

On one hand, I’m thankful, because disdain for tradition led
me to discover art quilting. And yet, I have this lingering sense of loss. I
have never made a log cabin quilt! I have never hand quilted or hand appliqued
anything. Embroidery scares me. I have never attempted those very things from
Anna’s quilts that stunned and captivated me in the beginning.

Thank goodness for the grace of aging! I’m more mature now
and I welcome the opportunity to explore the unknown. What is old, is new to
me. Thank you Misik for a chance to reflect and to reclaim the roots of this
splendid art form.

Thursday, September 24, 2015

What a privilege to attend the European Patchwork Meeting and share Viewpoints 9 with Europe! The exhibits were filled with new, exciting, though-provoking, inspiring exhibitions from Europe and beyond - - but, also, included some beautiful examples of traditional Log Cabin quilts from the International Quilt Study Center and Museum collection in Lincoln, Nebraska. Some food for thought in our current challenge….

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Tradition is not a new word to me, but when it
comes to the
traditional sewing techniques in Taiwan, I find myself so unfamiliar with it. I have no idea how to
explain the traditionaltechniques to you. I have to admit that I haven't been
paying much attention to it. Thank you, Misik, for giving me the opportunity to
think about the subject and to find out the tradition that I am not familiar with.
Here is not the complete information, but I would like to share a few images
with you.

First of all, I would like to introduce the “shoulang yam”. Shoulang yam is
a very important plant to Taiwanese aborigines. It is a traditional dyestuff.
Why is it so important? Fibers dyed with shoulang yam are believed to ward off
negative situations. It is also being used as mosquito repellents and it helps
to strengthen the toughness of fabrics. Most importantly, it’s a beautiful red
color. For Taiwanese people, red symbolize joy.Everyone wants to live a joyful life!

Shoulang yam is
traditionally much used by Taiwanese aborigines as natural dyes.

Next, I would like to talk about traditional sewing techniques in Taiwan.
Weaving has not been emphasized in the literature, but it’s a very common
technique for Taiwanese aborigines. Lots of images of Taiwanese weaving works
can be found in Google. Paper mulberry, ramie and banana tree string are 3
common natural fibers. They are weaved in red or its natural color to form very
special patterns. It’s an irreplaceable traditional technique.

There is also a very detailed technique for celebrations - the gorgeous
embroidery. Embroidery has a long history in Taiwan, but not many people pay
attention to it or learn it now. Though it is somewhat a sunset industry, I
have always been fascinated by its gorgeousness.

Traditional Embroidery
Art by Tainan Kuang Tsai Embroidery Shop

These are some rough information about the traditional techniques in
Taiwan that I know. There are some other techniques that I need to do further
research. Just share some of them with you. Thank you. Enjoy creating the 4th
challenge!

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Tradition, with a twist- I was delighted to see Misik's challenge for this round.
My first exposure to quilting was at the Kutztown State Fair, in the heart of Pennsylvania's Amish region. Their incredible work was hung on the barn walls , framing the black buggies and sheepskins on display.
I still feel that they are masterworks, and the balance, simplicity and sue of color inspire me even today.

I began piecing my own hand dyed muslin squares in the early '80's,

then the dots crept in-

.....and segued into the massive dottiness that is typical of my new tradition today-

Monday, September 7, 2015

Founded in 2012, Viewpoints 9 is an international, invitational, fiber art group, consisting of 9 women from 5 countries. Members represent a breadth of ages, art experiences, cultural and professional backgrounds. The group was conceived as a “think tank” to explore new sources of inspiration and encourage experimentation. Challenges, posed by each artist, are discussed and interpreted on a bi-monthly basis, culminating in an online gallery. The emerging narrative has been a fascinating opportunity to better understand and appreciate the diverse personal similarities and differences in how and why one creates. Challenges of 9 is the group's second body of work. To view works included in the exhibition, click here.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Apologies for being so late with this piece. I got totally swept up in it and it kept going and going - and now I feel like it's time to walk away.

I searched my soul for ideas for unconventional materials and finally settled on a variety of papers - - tissue paper, Abaca paper (made from the leaf-stems of of a banana species - - thank you, Judy Coates Perez for suggesting and supplying), and lokta (made from inner bark of evergreen shrubs).

The cycle is from a photo I took at the San Francisco Airport of a bicycle exhibit while "Waiting for Kelly", my oldest son, to arrive from Sweden. It is a 1941 Schwinn Admiral - a stunning bicycle! I wanted to try to mimic the glass and reflections of the case it was shown in. The abaca was perfect to create the text-type images and the bits of reflections. The tissue paper was a great palette for plate glass and reflections.

Where I went wrong was in fusing the tissue paper and abaca to a background of salvaged table cloth linen and silk curtains. The entire background was covered with organza and quilted in blocks with straights lined every 1/8". The non-woven and the woven materials behaved totally different when they were quilted and left me with a rippled background. So, after considering a variety of solutions, I decided to make the best of it for now and just fuse the collaged bike directly to the background. And that is where I have left it. I am reticent to sew it further, for fear the paper won't hold up being manipulated through the machine, but perhaps some hand-stitched spokes can be added.

I had a great time creating the piece! Thanks, Betty, for a great challenge!

Friday, September 4, 2015

The myth of
the tower of Babel, as told in the Book of Genesis, means to explain the origin
of the different languages. A united people,
of the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and
migrating from the east, came to the land of Shinar. Here they agreed to build
a city and tower, intending to reach the sky, to keep the people united, and to
make a name for themselves. Seeing this, God thought it an act of defiance, and
confounded their speech so that they could no longer understand each other; and
scattered them around the world.

From the beginning of mankind, language and writing have
been important communication tools.The
myth of Babel – the confusion of languages – seems to stress the need for a
common language – which is what English has become in the last decades – with
its rich literature, great political and scientific writings, and now the
language of computing.I wanted to
express this concept in my quilt. It is a Babel in reverse:from many languages, we come to a common
language.

This piece is
composed of two main layers:

- The background
layer is a composite of computer-printed cotton sheets, stitched together by
machine, where both the colour (gradations), and the texts, come from tools in
Photoshop. The texts in this first layer are in many languages; some are real
languages – say like French and Spanish – while others are produced using fonts
(downloaded free from the internet), which purport to be a different alphabet,
but they are only ‘pretend’ (like Chinese or Hebrew).

- The second, overlaying, layer, is made of ‘flaps’ of silk organza, where further texts are printed, either
using the computer printer, or Thermofax screens. The organza itself is
hand-painted with diluted acrylics. The texts in this layer are all in English – now the universal language – and
cover a wide range of subjects: literature, computer-talk, politics, science,
etc.

- There is some
hand-stitching holding the layers together.

I have used
materials and techniques which are unusual for me. It fits within my subject of Magic and Science, as it ranges from the mythological to current reality.